Where can we see, this summer, Mathieu Dufour venting to the music of Shania Twain, a (we hope) delirious crowd stamping their feet in harmony to Another Hotel Room (sung by its original interpreter, Gildor Roy!) and Yoan deliver one of his pieces under the effect of helium?
At the Less far than St-Tite event, a completely crazy concept imagined and hosted by the confident cowboy Pascal Morrissette, on July 26, at the ComediHa! greet Montreal. You can also take a look at the entire program of the meeting concocted by ComediHa!, here.
In an interview, the instigator of the project seemed completely elated. And his enthusiasm turns out to be contagious!
“I’m a regular at the St-Tite Western Festival,” explains Pascal Morrissette. It’s not a guilty pleasure; It’s simply a pleasure. Line dancing is in me. I danced in the arenas of St-Tite!”
Nevertheless, from there to transforming the Place des Festivals into a huge saloon, there was a (continental) step that Morrissette had not yet thought of taking. This is why he rejected out of hand the idea of his manager, who, just a month ago, suggested that he concoct a comedy high mass with a country theme.
The prospect said nothing to the host of the radio channel WKND 99.5, until this same manager returned to the charge a few days later, telling him about a call for tenders from ComediHa!, which hastily concocted a new comedy festival in Montreal to fill the space left vacant by the unforeseen cancellation of the Just for Laughs festival. There, Morrissette saw the potential.
“The concept came to us quite quickly. We want to live a trip country, we want to laugh… but closer than St-Tite! Hence the title of the event!”
Get out your boots and hats!
There will therefore be, as stated above, a Mathieu Dufour – Shania Twain “marriage” (“It’s not Shania Twain who is going to sing Poulet cru!”, jokes Pascal Morrissette, referring to the tube by Math Duff).
Gildor Roy will be there to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his refrain Another hotel room, with the unforgettable refrain. And it is during this segment that the organizer invites Montrealers and Quebecers to put on appropriate boots and hats to break a Quebec line dancing record! A choreography will be revealed some time before the big day, on social networks, so that people (hopefully in large numbers) can practice before the big moment. A competition of yodeling will also take place.
“I find this idea crazy!”, exclaims Pascal, to whom we also owe the unusual flash of asking Yoan, very popular in the country community, to embody a piece from his repertoire “in puffy helium. “Just to see how it sounds, Yoan, high pitched! He accepted…”
Mitsou (Bye Bye my cowboy, does that mean anything to you?) and Laurence Nerbonne, who duet on the new country rap anthem Cowgirl (described by Mitsou on her website as an “irresistible musical spaghetti western”), notably , will represent the fairer sex among the guests.
Other surprises are to be expected during this happening “very musical”, “very, very festive”, indicates Pascal Morrissette. New country guests will be added by July 26. There will be medleys of American or Quebec classics. From Willie Lamothe to Guylaine Tanguay, including, of course, Beyoncé’s Texas Hold’Em! All in a “humor and country” atmosphere which apparently will not be that of the Lasso festival, which should reach another audience.
“We’re going to have fun!”
Help from moms
This means that the couple made up of Pascal Morrissette and Julie Ringuette will be very busy during the hot season; him with the production of Less far than St-Tite, she with the musical Waitress, another ComediHa! production, in which she plays an important role alongside Marie-Eve Janvier.
Who will take care of their two little girls aged 3 and 5 during this professional whirlwind?, we jokingly ask the young dad, who will also be Anick Dumontet’s new co-host on Roue de fortune, on TVA , which this year will take us behind the scenes of Quebec’s major festivals.
“We’re putting out a call for tenders for guarding!”, he laughs, before continuing, more seriously:
“We have our mothers saving our lives right now. It’s a headache, but I’ll take the family on a Wheel of Fortune tour, and Julie can concentrate on Waitress.”
For the moment, Pascal Morrissette is putting on ice the gathering for young people Just for Teens, which he cooked up for five years (from 2016 to 2019, then in 2022) as part of Just for Laughs.
“It’s a dream that we still have, to bring back a large-scale youth event. We talk about it regularly. It will definitely come back one day!”, he nevertheless promises.
One thing is certain, the eternal enthusiast that is Pascal Morrissette will never tire of initiating projects and thinking big with his artistic fantasies. flyés as each other.
“That’s what excites and stimulates me the most, to create. I have an incredible team with me. My manager, Marie-Eve Lapierre, also works with Mathieu Dufour. Those are fartsit’s people who are rushing, and that gives rise to projects like Just for Teens, like the Day of steamed by Mathieu Dufour, like Less far than St-Tite.”
To find out everything about the Less far than St-Tite event, visit the event page!
